In the Rose Garden
by Lavender Mansworth
Summary: You’re not stupid, Sirius. You want me to come out here and seduce you tonight. You want me to be your excuse.


Summary: "You're not stupid, Sirius. You _want_ me to come out here and seduce you tonight. You want me to be your excuse." Someone visits Sirius in a rose garden. sarcasm I wonder _who_ it could be! SiriusBella, duh. R&R!

A/N: Hey hey hey folks, get ready for another one-shot! I know I swore off of them for a while but…couldn't help my self shrugs. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my other fic, Untitled, the only one I'm working on right now, just took a little time to write this…totally random as always. Please R&R! If you read, take the time to review, even if it's only a few words, just to let me know you read it! Thank you so much in advance!

Sirius sunk down onto a wrought iron bench and rested his head on his palm. Closing his eyes, he savored the silence. He knew that eventually, he'd have to return to the party, but for now, he needed a break. One relative at a time was overwhelming enough, but to be surrounded by so many people that couldn't care less whether he was dead or alive at once was just too much. At least now he could be certain he wouldn't strangle anyone…

For the first time, he looked around the clearing he'd let himself wander to. It was so far from the commotion that the house was entirely out of his sight, and the sounds of laughing, crystal glasses clinking and string quartets had long since disappeared. He seemed to be in a garden. A rose garden, by the looks of it. The blood red flowers were everywhere: In decorative, fenced off sections, lining the cobblestone path, in random patches near a marble statue that looked on with blank eyes some yards away, even growing up the sides of the bench he was sitting on. He reached out and touched one of the silk soft petals. A shiver went up his spine. They were so flawless, so perfect. Roses, such an innocent thing, yet always used as a symbol of love and passion, things such a pure flower, it seemed, should never be associated with. He continued to caress the blossom with his fingertips and didn't notice someone else joining him in the garden.

"Beautiful, aren't they Sirius?"

Sirius broke out of his mesmerized trance, and turned to see who it was. The darkness shielded their face and he couldn't tell.

The intruder took a step forward, her black heels clicking rhythmically on the stone. At the same time, the moon moved from behind the clouds, shedding a halo of light onto the garden, and revealing the identity of the woman who so boldly had interrupted his solitude.

The woman wore a dress of black silk that hugged her waist and flew breezily about her at her knees. Her long, dark hair fell just past her shoulder, rippling with natural curls and she twirled a bit of it around her finger as she continued forward. Halfway to the bench, she seemed to think for a moment and slipped off her shoes.

Sirius turned away in disgust. "What are you doing here, Bella?"

The young woman now stood in front of him, her long tapered finger on her hips. Cocking her head to one side, she stared at Sirius until he was forced to look back at her. A smile triumphantly danced on her lips as she bent down as though to tell a secret. She didn't speak for a moment, simply gazed into Sirius's narrowed, amber eyes. Sirius looked determinedly back into her penetrating blue ones, his own swimming with hate.

"I asked you what you were doing here," he repeated icily.

Bellatrix allowed her lips to part slightly before speaking seductively. "You were gone. I came to find you. The night is a dangerous place, Sirius."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Just go back, Bella, will you? God, can you just once let it go? Can you just once just leave me alone and not interrupt my one minute away from hell?"

Bella's smile grew. "Oh Siri, you know you don't mean that. You don't really want me to go. Right now, you're begging in your mind for me to stay. And quite good, really, because I have no intention of leaving."

Sirius stiffened as she sat down next to him, dangling her arm over the back of the bench. Bellatrix leaned in close and whispered, "Not until you admit what your heart is screaming."

Her mouth was so close to his face that he could feel her lips brush against his cheek, and smell her sweet breath; it smelt of strawberries and a vague hint of champagne.

He stared stonily ahead, trying to ignore her fluttering breathing in his ear. "Bella, the only thing my heart is screaming, is 'get the fuck out of here'."

Bella's smile disappeared, replaced with a pout. "Sirius, honey, must you always be so difficult?"

Sirius turned sharply, his lips just missing hers. "Bellatrix Lestrange, you irreclaimable whore, will you leave me alone and go beguile some other unsuspecting man!"

Bella's smirk was starting to return. "But Sirius, you don't understand," she said softly. He felt her hand reach up behind the bench and begin to toy with a piece of his hair. "I don't _want_ another man. I want you."

Sirius rose from the bench, teeth clenched. "God dammit, what don't you understand?" he hissed. "For 20 years I've hated you! Why can't you just be like the rest of our family and hate me back! Disown me; try to kill me, anything! Just _leave me alone!_"

Bella face took on a pained expression. She stood as well and moved close to him. Sirius didn't know why, but he didn't move away. "Oh, but cousin, hate and love are so closely related. Love often stems from the deepest hatred, and eventually turns back to it as well. And that's why we've always been so compatible."

Bella stood on her tiptoes, and Sirius prepared himself to back away, but she came no closer, sensing his wariness. For a moment, they just stood, looking into each other's eyes- Sirius's expression begging Bella to leave, and hers daring Sirius to make her go.

Bellatrix dared to speak again. "I know you're not stupid Sirius. You _want_ me to come out here and seduce you tonight. You want me to be your excuse."

Sirius couldn't believe this was happening to him. He should have left the garden as soon as Bellatrix arrived. He shouldn't have let him self get in this far. Fury rose above all other emotion for a moment, and all he could think was how much he wanted to harm Bella. He wanted to make her feel what he did every time he looked at her. He wanted to make her so confused that she wouldn't want him anymore. All she had to do was make the first move. And he knew she would.

She slid her hands up his chest, slowly, all the while looking him straight in the eye, as though to see how he would react. He stood perfectly still. Her arms found their way around his neck and she inched even closer to his face. She tilted her head back and her lips touched his. She remained still for a moment, their lips just grazing. Sirius took this opportunity and leaned forward, forcing both of them into the sudden kiss.

Bella lost her balance, making Sirius sit back down on the bench. He forcefully deepened the kiss; not trying to be gentle, but wanting her suffer. It was then that he realized that she was enjoying it. She kissed back just as hard, and he gradually understood that this was what she craved. This was how she planned it. She wouldn't be confused-ever- because she had him totally figured out. She would predict every move he made, so there was no catching her off her guard- she _had_ no vulnerability.

Even as he realized this, he didn't stop kissing her. He couldn't. She moved so that her legs were on either side of him and tangled her hands in his shoulder length black hair. A noise something in between a moan and a giggle escaped her, and she pulled back. Sirius put his hands tightly around her waist to stop her from getting up.

"See, Sirius, I know you too well…"

She reached down and picked a rose from beside the bench. The thorns pricked her fingers, and blood dripped down them, unnoticed, uncurbed. She tucked it behind her ear, droplets of blood quivering on the ends of the briars, threatening to drop onto her cheek.

Sirius felt the urge to roll his eyes: always the sadist, Bella. He restrained himself, and kept his hands firmly on her waist and his eyes firmly on hers.

"How was that for a taste, Siri? No need to hurry back so soon, we can play some more," she said, her lips curving into a frisky smile.

Suddenly Sirius felt weary of the whole thing. "Bella," he sighed jadedly, "This wasn't supposed to happen. This _really_ wasn't supposed to happen… Please- _please_, I'm begging you, just _go back_. If you do one good thing for me in my life, you will just leave me alone now."

Bella looked pensive for a moment, and then smiled sadly. "Good things are all I've ever wanted to do for you. All I've ever wanted is for you to be happy- _us_ to be happy. It just never worked out that way, I guess…it wasn't…meant to be…"

She got up and slipped her shoes back on, adding a good three inches to her height. "Cousins just weren't meant to love each other."

Sirius watched her retreating back as she clicked her way slowly out of the garden. Before she could leave his sight, he jumped up and ran to her. "Bella, wait!" he shouted.

When she turned around, he was by her side and immediately swept her up into a kiss. For the first time, their kiss was filled with sweetness and passion, unlike the unwanted contact that both had initiated previously that night. As Sirius wrapped his hands in Bella's fine hair, he felt the velvety touch of the rose tucked behind her ear, and thought that he had been wrong: roses _were_ symbolic of love- anything related to Bella seemed to scream ardor and passion.

As he broke away from the kiss, his lips tingling, he whispered, "You're wrong Bella. Cousins _were_ meant to love each other."

Bella looked shocked, then distressed. "Sirius, I can't do this to you. Remember when I said that love always eventually turns back to hate? It's true. I don't want that to happen. I want you to think fondly on my memory."

Sirius couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Bella! Just a minute ago, you were practically begging me to shag you senseless right here in the garden! How the bloody hell did you change your mind so bloody fast?" He expected his confusion to turn to anger, but it did not. It stayed that way…confused.

Bella sorrow seemed to grow, and it pained Sirius to see her so grievous. "Sirius, _you_ made me realize this. You said that I should do one good thing for you in your life. Leaving is that one thing. If I don't, do you know what will happen?"

"We'll both be happier than we've ever been in our lives?" Sirius volunteered, exasperatedly.

Bella shook her head. "No, love, what would happen would be that we'd both love each other so much that we'd begin to be sick of the other and in due time, we'd grow to hate each other with such passion that one our tempers would get the better of us and someone would end up getting hurt."

Sirius closed his eyes and shook his head vigorously, as though to dismiss the thought. "Bella, you can't do this!" he choked pleadingly.

Bella's cerulean eyes clouded with tears. "Please, Sirius, don't make this harder than it already is."

Sirius fell to his knees before her. "Bellatrix Elladora Lestrange, I love you! I love you and I would give my life for you! If you leave me now, you leave my life empty and worthless. There would be no point in my living, whether to hate you with every fiber in my body, or to spend every waking moment on your memory."

Bellatrix's tears now flowed freely down her porcelain face. The tears stained her cheeks, branding her for life, a constant reminder of the eternal love that, though only just realized, had, in reality, been there all along.

"I'm leaving now, Sirius."

"Please!" He grabbed the hem of her dress to stop her from leaving as she turned away. "Please, if you have to leave, just tell me that you love me. Tell me that you love me, so that I'll at least have the memory of your voice speaking those words to me."

Bellatrix looked torn. "Sirius I can't. It would only hurt you more. You'd dwell on it, it would tear you apart."

Sirius let the tears he had been desperately holding back overflow down his face. He didn't care about what he seemed like now. He ripped off his strong façade like a mask, abounding with emotion. It didn't matter now. It was all over.

"This already _is_ tearing me apart! Don't you understand? Just as I made you see that you had to leave, you made me realize that I loved you, even though I'd been denying it for this entire time. If you leave, I will suffer before slowly dying away."

"That would be better than what will happen if I stay," she whispered.

Without another word, she turned on her heel, and the silk slipped out of Sirius's hand, even as he grabbed for it resignedly.

As she stepped out of the garden, the moon moved behind the clouds and left the garden in darkness, as well as Sirius's heart. As her shadow moved from his sight, he felt part of his soul diminishing. By the time she had completely vanished, he was empty. He could feel no longer, emptiness overwhelmed him. It was amazing that not long before, the woman that was doing this to him had been his worst enemy. How ironic. He slumped to the ground, and lay sprawled there for an uncountable amount of time. With his last thread of thought before he sank in nothingness, he knew the truth, and whispered into the vacant night, "Bella, cousins _were_ meant to love each other…"


End file.
